The Passé Composé II

When we last talked about the passé composé we learned there are two verb parts that
get added to the subject, the auxiliaire and the participe passé. We practiced with the
auxiliaire 'avoir' and learned how to make the participe passé for ER and IR verbs.

This time we'll learn two of the more complicated aspects of the Passé Composé. First of
all, we will learn which verbs use être for their auxiliaire, and then how être changes the
participe passé.

There are 16 verbs that use être instead of avoir when making the passé composé.
You just have to memorize them. Fortunately there is an acronym we use as a
mnemonic device to help us remember. You might also be able to spot a pattern.

The verbs that use être for their auxiliaire are :

Devenir Descendre

Revenir Entrer

Monter Rentrer

Rester Tomber

Sortir Retourner

Venir Arriver

Aller Mourir

Naître Partir

If we take the first letter of each we get DR MRS VANDERTRAMP. Dr Mrs Vandertramp
doesn't mean anything, it's a just a way to remember and name these verbs that use
être in the passé composé.
 The Passé Composé II
Level 1

Look up what each of the verbs mean in English.

Devenir Descendre

Revenir Entrer

Monter Rentrer

Rester Tomber

Sortir Retourner

Venir Arriver

Aller Mourir
Naître Partir

Can you spot some patterns? What are some commonalities among these verbs?

Can you change the DR MRS Vandertamp verbs into their participe passé forms?
(Remember we learned how in the last worksheet. I've given you the exceptions).

Devenir devenu Venir venu

Revenir revenu Aller

Monter Naître né
Rester Descendre descendu
Sortir Entrer
 The Passé Composé II
Level 1 (con't)

Rentrer Arriver
Tomber Mourir mort
Retourner Partir

Now that we've done that, let's talk about how être changes these 16 verbs.

A participle is what happens when we use a verb like an adjective, we use the verb to
describe something. In English we do this using -ing.

For example :
If I say 'The running man is wearing Nikes.' the word
'running' is actually an adjective describing 'man'

"The sleeping child is snoring." Sleeping' is used as an adjective here.

This is important because a participle is a 'participe' in French. That means our participe
passé is technically an adjective. Because it's an adjective, if it is linked to a noun it is
going accord with that noun.

In other words if our auxiliaire is être the participe passé part has to match the subject's
number and gender.

All of that is a lot if words leading to one basic thing : the DR MRS
VANDERTRAMP verbs accord with their subject's gender and number in the
passé composé.

The endings of DR MRS VANDERTRAMP participe passés are just like adjectives:

masculin singulier (none) masculin pluriel -s

féminin singulier -e féminin pluriel -es

 The Passé Composé II
For example :

He was born. = Il est né. Note : Né is the participe passé of naitre.

Note : We use suis (être) because naitre is DR
MRS VANDERTRAMP

She was born. = Elle est née.

Because 'elle' is the subject and we're using 'être,' 'né' adds an 'e' indicating that
it's matching the feminine singular subject.

Level 2

Accord the underlined words correctly by gender and number.

Note that for the masculine singular they won't change.

1 Elle est mort. Elle est mort e .

2 Il est venu. Il est venu.
3 La chaise est tombé.

4 Le garçon est sorti.

5 Les filles sont allé.

6 Le déchet est parti.

7 Les déchets sont revenu.

8 Les employées sont resté.

9 M Godfrey est entré.

10 Mme Lam est arrivé.

11 Ma sœur est né.

12 Mon frère et moi sommes retourné.

13 Les élèves sont descendu.

 The Passé Composé II
Level 3

Put each verb in brackets into the Passé Composé.

Accord the participe passé if necessary .

1 Il (aimer) 2 Je (avoir)

3 Nous (rester) 4 Vous (être)

5 Elles (mourir) 6 Ils (manger)

7 Vous (finir) 8 Elle (arriver)

9 M Lindsay (marcher) 10 Les filles (tomber)

Level 4

a) Write a sentence using each verb in brackets in the Passé Composé.

b) Translate that sentence to English.

1 a) (mourir)

b)

2 a) (avoir)

b)

3 a) (être)
b)

4 a) (aller)

b)

5 a) (aimer)

b)